Was Morgan Stanley Amazoned?
From New York Post
The share price of Morgan Stanley has behaved more like that of a dotcom over the past week than that of a white shoe investment bank. Yesterday, its shares fell another $8.25, capping its three-day loss at seventeen percent. What's behind the fall? Speculation is that MSDW has taken a significant hit in the high-yield department. Last week its head of high-yield -- Dwight Sipprelle - resigned as recently did Ken deRegt, global head of fixed income. The published report pegs the loss at an amount as high as $500 million. The losses likely come from underwriting losing issues including: Viatel, Call-Net Enterprises and ICG Communications. It's competitors add that positions in Owens Corning bonds, Amazon.com convertibles, Amazon.com high-yields, as well as a loan to Nortel Inversora (NTL) in Argentina have added to the firm's woes.

Harbor Funds Hang Out For Sale Sign
From Wall Street Journal
Owens-Illinois hired Salomon Smith Barney to put Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. on the auction block, the paper quoted "people familiar with the matter" as saying. Harbor manages more than $17 billion in assets including the Harbor Fund family. The reported price tag is between $600 million and $700 million, or about 4% of assets. Owens-Illinois itself has a market cap of just $1.1 billion.

Putnam Backed Buyout Fund Falls Short of Target
From Boston Globe
Thomas H. Lee fund missed its target of $6 billion for its new buyout fund, settling for $5.5 billion. The fund turned to Putnam Investments to raise the money from wealthy individuals. Putnam sold investments from its clients in increments of $250,000.

Annuity Sales Move Online
From CBS.MarketWatch
A number of Web sites are trying to sell annuities. These new players include Annuitynet.com, VariableAnnuityOnline.com, insure.com, annuityscout.com, tiaa-cref.com, finportfolio.com, which feature tools and info about annuities. The sites claim to simplify the buying process and remove costs. Yet, critics argue that annuities are sold, not bought, making them a poor vehicle for Internet distribution.

Deutsche Bids on NBD
From Wall Street Journal
Is Deutsche Bank making another buy at the top of the market. The firm got into the institutional business with its Bankers Trust acquisition as other institutional firm's are seeking new markets. Now it has made a $1 billion bid for discount-broker NBD just as the Net fad appears to be becoming unwound. The offer is twice what the bank paid for its initial 16 percent stake in the firm. The article points out that Deutsche's interest in NBD may be for its market-making business and not its online brokerage. Under this theory, it may be reacting to Merrill Lynch's purchase of Herzog Heine Geduld Inc. and Goldman Sachs' acquisition of Spear, Leeds & Kellogg LP. Deutsche is offering to pay $1,000 to $1,600 per online account for NBD's 269,000 customers.

Paine Webber Meets Expectations
From Wall Street Journal
PaineWebber Group Inc. reported earnings inline with expectations. Its profits fell 1.8 percent in the third-quarter profit due to a slowdown in investment-banking revenue and higher costs. Net revenue rose 17 percent to $1.44 billion from $1.24 billion while total revenue grew 32% to $2.45 billion from $1.86 billion.

More on Mitchell Hutchins
From Wall Street Journal
Wall Street's paper of record picks up the news that Mitchell Hutchins employees are facing job cuts and diminished call for their fund management abilities that the MutualFundWire first reported yesterday. The paper adds that the moves are being made to fix performance problems at the funds. "We concluded that there were things that we do that we're very, very good at, where we add value and are among the best in the industry, and others where we were consistently average," Brian M. Storms, president and chief executive officer of Mitchell Hutchins, is quoted as saying.

USA Today on ETFs
From USA Today
Another national newspaper has jumped on the exchange-traded fund trend. John Waggoner writes that "Cubes may be going down the tubes, but exchange-traded funds are still soaring in popularity." He adds that ETFs have become "stunningly popular", with SPDRs now ranking as the twentieth largest fund with $24.3 billion in assets.

Investors Lack ETF Info
From TheStreet.com
Information on exchange-traded funds is in short supply, claims this article. ETF sponsor sites and the American Stock Exchange offers little information other than updated quotes. Investment banks mostly limit research on the funds to clients. Morningstar plans to add Quicktake reports on ETFs before the end of the month it reports.

More on Folios
From Investors Business Daily
Folios continue to cause writers to spill ink. Another article explains the tax-efficiency and relative low cost of these "personal funds" and extensively quotes Steve Wallman.

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